Added: 3 years ago
From: sparkyUonline
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  • looks good keep up the good work..

  • Eeew..That's some seriously scabbed up shit. a simple 100 amp all-in-one will clean this up in a jiffy, sell it, man! The old open wires on  A base socket were legal at one time..house is probably knob and tube, if not then old lead jacketed romex...PS...utility co could'nt care less.. it on the USER side..reminds me of Mexico this is considered safe down there!!

  • Why would the utility even put the meter in? I (non electrician) just rewired my first floor (THHN 12 ga.) My unused upstairs is even worse but for now I cut and capped the two feeders and neutrals going there. Again I am no electrician but hell read a few books and ask the pro at Home Depot (retired electrician) and you can do lots of work safely.

  • thats some fuckery, this shit sent a chill down my spine.

  • @Canucker313 Crazy- huh!

  • im still in electrical tech and just at first glance even i saw that there was a HUGE problem there xD

  • i so wana know what the insurence would say when the house burns down

  • Thats handyman work. Look at the taped wirenuts. I see this kind of work often.

  • we bought a house one time and the fuse box was in the shower stall the first words out of my mouth were WTF hence we had to have the house rewirerd

  • Is interesting, people that are not electricians like myself would just see a loudsy job (due to the unorganized cables) but would never think of it unsafe because a so called electrician did the work.

  • Maybe it was the Dr. Murray of the electrical profession. hahahah

  • @Americo1974 More like Kervorkian.hehhehheh

  • It sounds like speaking without cursing is beyond you.

  • I don't mean to be rude or anything, but this is nothing compared to "aluminum wiring catastrophe" that some group of licensed electricians thought it would be great to install back in the 60s..Even though copper has always been there. The wiring looks more like necessity than anything else.The owner was most likely poor and couldn't afford electric work.You ever know what it's like to have no $? Let's all be rich elecs with degrees and point and laugh at others who are less fortunate. Not :(

  • I would be happy to hire a license electrican but Damn you guys charge a fortune to do a job. They wanted to charge me 1,000 bucks to upgrade my panel and I know enough about electric and did it myself and did it to code . Total expenses was 180 bucks far cry from 1,000 bucks

  • Yea, they can read the meter and put a nice, blue, security tag on it. Addams Family Electricians Unincorporated.

  • meter readers do not know any thing, so they would not no any thing is wrong at all, meter readers are just that, meter readers, thats why they do not report it, just like inspectors, they were no dam good at there trade in the utility company so they made them an inspector, and it gos to there head big time . have had inspectors fired

  • I live in California looks like a typical day for me I'd just cut out PGE throw in a new meter and charge the owner 2G if they ain't happy they can find someone else to Jerry rig it. I already risk my life knocking out PGE

  • I have enjoyed several of your "It's beyond me" videos, but man you missed the target this time. You ranted through the whole video without ever actually pointing out the problems. We all agree with you that it is crazy that the electrical company can read the meter and not call the county inspectors. But, think about your viewers. We are more interested in the WHY part of this. Explain what is actually wrong and don't just say that it is against code, explain why is it inadequate or unsafe.

  • @michaelalanlee THanks for your response,yea I get carried away sometimes and get off point. I'll pay closer attention to the new videos I upload.

  • @michaelalanlee

    Most utility companies techs are not trained in general electrical installations. Remember their overall area of responsibility ends at the meter can. many electrical companies are more and more employing 3rd party companies to do the meter installations for new and service heavy ups.

    The guy reading the meter is clueless about installtions.

  • hey got a question for you. When installing an electrical outlet but powering it from another nearby outlet the only wires that you twist together r the ground and the neutral wire should connect to the secondary screw as is the hot wire on the hot side. Am i correct with this?

  • Comment removed

  • I went to India last year and i tell you this is nothing!

  • Nobody likes bad wiring and nobody like a Code Nazi. Chill out dude.

  • Great videos - - I too run across this type of crap all the time. . . I don’t know what is worst… The “handy man” – the “home owner” – the “farmer” – or the “millwright”

  • Wow that's baaaad! In not an eletrician but damn even I would have had the brains to figure out high current and tape does not match. And the lids must close. :)

  • Wow, just wow I'm 1st year into HVAC studies and even with my limited knowledge I could do a better job than this, not that I'd attempt to but damn, that doesn't cross a line it throws up on it. If this was done by a licensed tech they should have their license revoked and also slapped around for this crap. If the house had burned down and killed people as a result of this and you could show this in a court of law any judge would agree to manslaughter charges maybe more. Unbelievable.

  • Who nominated YOu to be God ?

    of course you want to snitch , because you make money rewiring it.

  • that can't be good for you...

  • ddd

  • @donalkathy RIGHT!?

  • Hi there, I'm a sparky in Australia and came across something like this in an elderly couples house once. I took the old man out to the board and said "Are you trying to kill your grand kids"?

    He got the point.

    Don't ever feel bad for getting worked up when coming across shit like this. It is only your commitment to excellence and your integrity to human life that is reacting. Thankyou for being a profesional and representing the trade.

    donalk@bigpond.com

  • @donalkathy Thanks for your comment and watching!

  • Holy Crap!! I thought my house was a fire hazard. That's insane. I just moved in to a really old house. The knob and tube in the attic scared the shit out of me. My house should be on fire right now. There's wires spliced and connected all over the place. Extension cords used for wiring, bare wires, it a freaking mess. I'm in the process of rewiring the whole house.

  • american wiring standards are terrible, and far beyond safe, maybe its only 110volt , no need to be anal on safety there, but imo british standards over americann is far superiour by miles, also the rats nest electrical utility poles in america everywhere its a eye sore abortion to look at and a mess, and fire safety, pvt companies cutting corners imo. capitalisim suk ass.

  • @diveplane agreed diveplane British stanards WERE the best in the world

    then what do those Assholes in the IEE and NICEIC decide to do?

    yes lets prostitute ourselves and harmonise with the rest of

    Europe out go the sensible colour codes like Red for live/ danger

    and black for Neutral and in come Brown /blue and dont get me

    started on the screw up of our 3 phase colours from the sensible

    Red Yellow Blue to the mess of Brown Black Grey . plus the abortion

    they have made of Earthing Disgraceful

  • @donalkathy and people say electricians a good trade, ill never forget when i started a guy of twenty years in the trade asked me was i mad i know now what he was talking about

  • @donalkathy no respect for the elderly wow how the hell should he know dont yell at him for it.

  • I agree, this wiring is a fire waiting to happen! This building should be condemned! Who ever did this wiring must been a young kid! I talking 7 years old here! 

  • Correct me if I am wrong but, screw fuses like that are dating back to the early 70' maybe later? I have not seen anything like that since I was a kid... lol! The wiring is horrid and I agree it is a fire hazard waiting to happen!

  • That's my house, and since this pic was taken, I've added 6 more fuse boxes and relayed the entire setup through an old volvo I have parked next to the meter.

  • @TheNgamerz Too Funny!

  • @sparkyUonline whats funny? its true

  • @TheNgamerz and underfloor heating

  • Looks Like the work of a typical Unlicensed New York City Contractor.

  • At least in norway, not many dare to pull half assed electrical jobs nowadays.

    Has to be a licensed electrician that does it, the insurance companies get real cranky when the place burns down. Ok, maybe not cranky. They just cut the payout.

    I'll stick to 12\24V on cars, cheaper fuses xD

  • damn dude thats some fancy wiring you have done there lol, just kidding what is even more amazing is that the electrical company is suppose to inspect that before they put the meter in unless they cobbled it up after they installed the meter

  • I know where that is, I was there when the power was turn off over 20 years ago. The house is condemned. My friends still had 1 mouth on they rent and was not going to move out a head of time, so they used my generator to pump water.

  • what were they thinking, if i woulda seen something like that, id b willing to change it an fix it for free, its not worth having someone get hurt or die, just think if a lil kid got ahold of it

  • OMg, if i woulda seen that, id be willing to change it for free, it aint worth getting ppl hurt or killed, even if a kid got ahold of it, man they should b banished

  • You shouldn't have electrical work done on the cheap, it could come back to haunt you.

  • Brother it happends all the time,how do you explain to the owner that bad things are going to happen when everything is working at the moment...

  • @chrisirobe Most will see the sincerity in your actions and others will wait to see what happens.Not much you can do on the later but written advisement and have them sign it declining repair.

    Good comment,thank you.

    Sparky

  • @chrisirobe I've done some disaster work in the rural south in the past and things like this are very common. Due to the low income of many of the areas we worked in, it was not uncommon to find fully functional K&T right along side of modern wiring. The best was walking into the local hardware store to find NOS cartridge fuses on the shelves.

  • WOW!

  • (PS) I ment (WIRING) Add-Half blind to the disabled part LOL!

  • I wonder what the inside wireing looks like...I sure wouldn't like to spend the nite with these people...(Disabled X electrician , from Illinois...30 + yrs in the trades.)

  • it looks like they have tapped into the live coming into the property before the meter an attempt to not pay for electricity maybe?

  • You should explain what's wrong with this, it's hard to tell from the photos. To me it looks like they bypassed the main disconnect and the branch fuses, assuming the box on the lower left was the main disconnect and the box on the lower right was the branch fuses. I'm not sure the purpose of the box on the upper left, and I can't tell where all the wires are going.

  • shit like that is why i do commercial

  • Holy shit!!! Whoever did this should be banished. This is shameful.

  • @megalos2007 I am sure it wasn't just one person.fact is that it should not have gotten this bad,should have been fixed a long time ago.

    Sparky

  • were they growing weed?

  • @sniperusg50 Probably.

  • what the hell is this death contraption??? I wouldn't even open the door.

  • It is obviously done years ago I have seen alot worse, the older the building the more stuff like this you will see.

  • It could have been worse. At least they used electrical and not duct tape.

  • Knew someone that had a contractor build a garage and use 14ga wire in bx and buried it underground, it was hook up directly to the service line in the meter box, no breakers. Ended up having to rip it all out for him and and ran 4 guage wire to his basement where the main breaker panel with a 60amp subpanel in the garage using aluminum conduit, also had to upgrade his sevice from the 60amp fuse breaker he had, which the wire was rotted out, to a new 200amp service 4/0-3 SEU Aluminum cable.

  • @DrMR2002 holy shit! unfused circuits? wtf?!?!?! how can anyone live with themself doing that?

  • your mama wired it

  • Sparky I am amazed at the stuff you find. I have been doing the same thing when working on audio visual installs with lighting remote controls. My specialty is repairing the mess hotel "engineers" create when trying to repair or modify large scale dimmer systes.

    One note: you need to dramatically increase the audio level on your videos.

  • if you cant find the panel then follow the tell-tale whisp of smoke...

  • Okay even for a non-electrically inclined 'tard this looks horrible, but could you provide details on what exactly is going on? Other than it looks like someone on acid installed this?

  • I bet it was a do it your self job!

  • Handyman FTW

    

  • LOL you should see the apartment building behind my building, 5 apartments, 1 house service. So a total of 6 YES 6 meters, guess how big the main disconnect box is rated for..... 60 fricken amps..... Maybe I'll grab my nikon D50 and snap some shots for ya and upload them.

  • @DjCincinnatus Please do.Thanks.

  • @DjCincinnatus Let's see it!

  • @DjCincinnatus Unbelievable!

  • As a lineman i could give a shit less what is on the narrowback side!

  • @hotsticker How about as a humane being-caring about the safety of others?

  • @sparkyUonline as a handy man i can safely say this is a good installation and theres nothing wrong, seems to me u do this stuff to rip people off & get more work....

  • @ilkill3dil are you kidding me? it looks like they have used jumpers to bypass fuses

  • That happens when the customer chooses the lowest bid from that guy doing work out of his toyota corolla. lol

  • Could be one of the places where the owners are still responsible for reading the meters.

  • thats what causes fires.......

  • What a nightmare!

  • i had a case in an old radio where the insulation all fell off the wires when touched and turned to dust

  • 1:05 My thought exactly. And to all you wiseasses out there, people can get killed in this house, far away from this "wiring".

  • That is ridiculous. Who does that and gets away with shitty work like this? That's against code regulations.

  • Wow that is unbelievable. Correct me if i'm wrong ,but if i'm looking at that right those are bypassed fuse blocks that are wired direct? That scares me just to look at them.

  • Have you seen Rural Mexican wiring where people just climb the pole and tap into the bees nest of wires?

    Most bizarre thing I've ever seen!

  • I came from the old country, I personally wire my stuff right but I have been to alot of "farmer joe" houses that were this or worse. You I do this one small trick when dealing with something like this, its not 100% but much safer, I just put on the ole heavy rubber gloves. Or better yet, (I loose an hour of the day) call the power company and have them take the meter off before I work on the system. If proper preventive measures are taken you will not get hurt from it.

  • Floyd5666 Sparky nailed it on the head! I have ran across some convoluted jobs in my time. Normal home owners wouldn't have a clue about changing out fuses in and old style setup like this, and would probably get hurt or worse in this situation. Floyd, have you ever heard the expression , "Do it right the first time?" It really does not take that much effort to do a job up to code.. Gives me gutrott to see a job done like this and I usually say MY GOD what where they thinking..

  • I think the owners were just trying to create a jewish remodel.

    Let it burn then remodel with the insurance money!

  • @floyd5666 sorry you feel this way.

    Please admit what your suggesting is not realistic.

  • In a real world money would not exist. In a real world love would be the form of exchange. Only true Christians would know this but only the reprobated will continue to believe in their money as their God.

  • Lets be honest God is not a certified electrician.

    The only thing stopping that building from burning to the ground is God.

    Real electricians should be passionate about their work. Doing their job correctly is what ensures all of us that we don't die when we decide to go for a dip in a pool or do a load of laundry.

    To expect an electrician to take responsibility for someone elses work is ridiculous..

    Have a nice day... Go Amish!!!

  • @floyd5666 When did religion turn into a way to insult people? If your good at something never do it for free. Great videos sparky as a third year apprentice i love getting on here and seeing stuff like this. Really gives me a sense of pride in a job well done look forward to seeing more.

  • looking at the rust and old fuses , it must be 40 years old

  • this shit should be taken seriously because electricity kills this installation proves that the people responsible for this installation had no regard for safety for them selves the homeowner the next guy that comes along etc. how would you feel if you got called to a home and you had to work on this?

  • The meter probably may have Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) technology installed so the meter reader reads it from his truck. Analog meters are easily retrofitted with AMR modules. That is probably why this went unnoticed.

  • Atleast he used insulation tape on the joints! =D

  • I wodent be Surprized if there was Knob And Tubing wire in the house.

  • i have been doing electrical work for 7 years and have seen alot of shit in my time doing this work so far and this just tops it all off

  • I have more!! Stay tuned!

  • I've been doing this for 21 years, sadly, I've seen worse than this.

  • Send in some pictures.

  • I hope you wore protection....

  • When someone you know ends up dead because of work like this-then let's talk personal!

  • That is so bad not only is it unsafe it's amazing that it works at all.

  • Wow! I wonder what else might be wrong with the wiring throughout this house?  The strangest thing I recall seeing is a fuse type service panel located inside a bathroom shower. The home was fairly old and the shower was added decades later. Great video!

  • Even though I'm not licensed, I've done a gracious plenty of wiring in my time, and I have had formal classroom training. This is just sad. I don't know what amazes me more - that a licensed electrician did this caliber of work, or that it actually passed inspection!

  • I have coined this type of work as the "elements of age"

  • Wondering if you could post another video actually analyzing the problems with this photo. It would be way more informative. You narration could go something like - Okay, in this view you see there appears to be wiring taped together to the main supply line, without a circuit breaker and running back into the house. In this close up, there appears to be ...., etc. The rust on the panel doors indicate that the main outerdoor, exposes the entire panel to weather. This looks like an abandoned.

  • Mike thanks for your comment and GOOD point.I get a lot of e-mails requesting the same as you.I will take your advise and produce better informed videos in the future!

    Sparky

  • Thanks for your informative videos. i am an  electrical domestic installer based in England. This work is complete shit and needs decommisioning immediately!!

  • As a meter reader, If i would have seen this i would have dispatched a lineman there Immediatley and had power SHUT OFF at the TRANSFORMER!!

  • NOW that's what I looking for!!!

  • I can't believe that "Antique meter" looks like it is connected "AFTER" the disconnect? Hmm??

  • Sparky, Don't worry about it. I mess up myself now and then. I've sent messages to members only to realize later I got two people mixed up. EEEEK

  • Good for you. It needs to be shut off and cleaned up big time.

  • Daaaaaaaaaaymn - That sure is a disaster.

  • That is suppose to be a thumbs up!

    Damn trigger finger

  • You would not believe how many towns have incompetent inspectors, who got their job by way of his wife's sister's sister-in-law who knew another guy. It seems like there are always more knowledgable people who could be inspectors or electrician, but sometimes it boils down to who you know or blow. I used to work at Visteon, and every electrician thought they knew it all just because they went through apprenticeship. Some of them can't do basic math or circuit calculations.

  • It all comes down to the human factor. Inspectors,electricians,helper­s,supervisors,meter readers and home owners.Any persons involved need to take into consideration the safety of people and property.

  • I agree with you Sparky and I know why you didn't go through the list of violations...BECAUSE THERE ARE TOO MANY!

    I have to say what irritates me the most...the meter MUST be in a "can".

  • Yeah,way too many issues here.The whole system needs to be replaced.

  • I wish you would explain whats wrong, for a non-electrician. Very interesting.

  • a clusterfuck ,dudes right a carptrician done that shit.or maybe a paintrician.....that should have been a bar-b-que

  • Sparky, did Robert give you any more info on this?

  • I did not receive very much info on this.

  • Subscribing!

  • Cool,Thanks

  • i am sucribing ,

  • Right on,Thanks

  • im in school training to be a electrician and i get annoyed when i see stuff like this.

  • I see this kind of work every day.I get paid to fix it,that's what keeps me motivated to make these small videos.

    Maybe we should have training videos like the DUI films show dead people and destruction when you don't do things the correct way!

  • yah pleas put training vids on cuz im most likely going to be a electricain i have 1 year im gonna be in college

  • diy vidieos cre cool

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